eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Stimulus-specificity of surround-induced responses in primary visual cortex

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Nisa Cuevas
   2. Boris Sotomayor-Gómez
   3. Athanasia Tzanou
   4. Ana Broggini
   5. Cem Uran
   6. Martin Vinck

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study investigates the selectivity of neuronal responses in the primary visual cortex and the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus to stimuli presented far outside their receptive fields. The evidence supporting the claims is incomplete, due to lack of clarity. This paper should be of interest to neurophysiologists interested in vision and contextual modulations.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. The novel role of Kallistatin in linking metabolic syndromes and cognitive memory deterioration by inducing amyloid-β plaques accumulation and tau protein hyperphosphorylation

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Weiwei Qi
   2. Yanlan Long
   3. Ziming Li
   4. Zhen Zhao
   5. Jinhui Shi
   6. Wanting Xie
   7. Laijian Wang
   8. Yandan Tan
   9. Ti Zhou
   10. Ping Jiang
   11. Bin Jiang
   12. Xia Yang
   13. Guoquan Gao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study identified an innovative molecular mechanism linking diabetes to Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk, with important significance. The finding presents novel insights into AD pathogenesis and provides strong evidence about the mechanistic roles of Kallistatin, and the therapeutic potential of fenofibrate in AD. The experiments are well conducted, and the evidence is convincing.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Growth consequences of the inhomogeneous organization of the bacterial cytoplasm

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Johan H van Heerden
   2. Alicia Berkvens
   3. Daan H de Groot
   4. Frank J Bruggeman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study examines E. coli growth and division, suggesting that inhomogeneous organization of ribosomes in the cytoplasm results in cell size-dependent growth rate perturbations. The work is conceptually appealing, but incomplete due to shortcomings in the experiments and modeling.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Adaptive chunking improves effective working memory capacity in a prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia circuit

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Aneri V Soni
   2. Michael J. Frank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work proposes a neural network model of interactions between the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia to implement adaptive resource allocation in working memory, where the gating strategies for storage are adjusted by reinforcement learning. Numerical simulations provide convincing evidence for the superiority of the model in improving effective capacity, optimizing resource management, and reducing error rates, as well as solid evidence for its human-like performance. The paper could be strengthened further by a more thorough comparison of model predictions with human behavior and by improved clarity in presentation. This work will be of broad interest to computational and cognitive neuroscientists, and may also interest machine-learning researchers who seek to develop brain-inspired machine-learning algorithms for memory.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. JAK inhibition decreases the autoimmune burden in Down syndrome

   This article has 22 authors:

   1. Angela L. Rachubinski
   2. Elizabeth Wallace
   3. Emily Gurnee
   4. Belinda A. Enriquez Estrada
   5. Kayleigh R. Worek
   6. Keith P. Smith
   7. Paula Araya
   8. Katherine A. Waugh
   9. Ross E. Granrath
   10. Eleanor Britton
   11. Hannah R. Lyford
   12. Micah G. Donovan
   13. Neetha Paul Eduthan
   14. Amanda A. Hill
   15. Barry Martin
   16. Kelly D. Sullivan
   17. Lina Patel
   18. Deborah J. Fidler
   19. Matthew D. Galbraith
   20. Cory A. Dunnick
   21. David A. Norris
   22. Joaquin M. Espinosa

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     Rachubinski and colleagues provide an important manuscript that includes two major advances in understanding immune dysregulation in a large cohort of individuals with Down syndrome. The work comprises compelling, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art clinical, immunological, and autoantibody assessment of autoimmune/inflammatory manifestations. Additionally, the authors report promising results from a clinical trial with the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib for individuals with dermatological autoimmune disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. PPI-hotspotID: A Method for Detecting Protein-Protein Interaction Hot Spots from the Free Protein Structure

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Yao Chi Chen
   2. Karen Sargsyan
   3. Jon D Wright
   4. Yu-Hsien Chen
   5. Yi-Shuian Huang
   6. Carmay Lim

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The manuscript presents a machine-learning method to predict protein hotspot residues. The validation is incomplete, along with the misinterpretation of the results with other current methods like FTMap.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A Ctnnb1 enhancer transcriptionally regulates Wnt signaling dosage to balance homeostasis and tumorigenesis of intestinal epithelia

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Xiaojiao Hua
   2. Chen Zhao
   3. Jianbo Tian
   4. Junbao Wang
   5. Xiaoping Miao
   6. Gen Zheng
   7. Min Wu
   8. Mei Ye
   9. Ying Liu
   10. Yan Zhou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Ctnnb1 encodes β-catenin, an essential component of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. In this important study, the authors identify an upstream enhancer of Ctnnb1 responsible for the specific expression level of β-catenin in the gastrointestinal track. Deletion of this enhancer in mice and analyses of its association with human colorectal tumors provide compelling support that it controls the dosage of Wnt signaling critical to the homeostasis in intestinal epithelia and colorectal cancers.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Neural Geometry from Mixed Sensorimotor Selectivity for Predictive Sensorimotor Control

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Yiheng Zhang
   2. Yun Chen
   3. Tianwei Wang
   4. He Cui

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This useful study examines the neural activity in the motor cortex as a monkey reaches to intercept moving targets, focusing on how tuned single neurons contribute to an interesting overall population geometry. The presented results and analyses are solid, though the investigation of this novel task could be strengthened by clarifying the assumptions behind the single neuron analyses, and further analyses of the neural population activity and its relation to different features of behaviour.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Pathway activation model for personalized prediction of drug synergy

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Quang Thinh Trac
   2. Yue Huang
   3. Tom Erkers
   4. Päivi Östling
   5. Anna Bohlin
   6. Albin Österroos
   7. Mattias Vesterlund
   8. Rozbeh Jafari
   9. Ioannis Siavelis
   10. Helena Bäckvall
   11. Santeri Kiviluoto
   12. Lukas M Orre
   13. Mattias Rantalainen
   14. Janne Lehtiö
   15. Sören Lehmann
   16. Olli Kallioniemi
   17. Yudi Pawitan
   18. Trung Nghia Vu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable report on a machine-learning tool for predicting synergistic drug combinations for cancer treatment. However, the evidence supporting the claims of the authors is incomplete, as the reported model shows some evidence of overfitting, and the claims of the authors could be strengthened if additional validation experiments were performed. The work will be of interest to oncologists and medical biologists working on cancer.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Sigh generation in preBötzinger Complex

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Yan Cui
    2. Evgeny Bondarenko
    3. Carolina Thörn Perez
    4. Delia N. Chiu
    5. Jack L. Feldman

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This valuable study by Cui et al. investigates mechanisms generating sighs, which are crucial for respiratory function and linked to emotional states. Utilizing advanced methods in mice, they provide solid evidence that increased excitability in specific preBötzinger complex neuronal subpopulations expressing Neuromedin B receptors, gastrin-releasing peptide receptors, or somatostatin, can induce sigh-like large-amplitude inspirations. With additional technical clarifications and further supporting evidence for the implied capability of the neuron subpopulations studied to intrinsically generate the normal slow sigh rhythm, the study will interest neuroscientists studying respiratory neurobiology and rhythmic motor systems.

    Reviewed by eLife